Tim Newbold, Ecology PhD Student - University of Nottingham
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Egpyt Expedition May - June 2008
A map of the sites we visited can be found here.
Some photographs from the expedition can be seen here.
In May and June 2008 we undertook a field expedition in Egpyt, surveying butterflies, reptiles, amphibians and mammals to test models predicting their distributions. On the expedition were Wiebke Berg, Wael Shohdi, Ahmed El-Gabass, Rashed and Ahmed the animal catchers, and myself.
We spent the first two weeks of the trip visiting sites in the Nile Delta. For this part of the expedition, we were accompanied by a local guide, Reydar, whose help in finding the sites and finding species at the sites was invaluable. The campsites here were memorable and included a rubbish dump and a site swarming with mosquitoes. Getting access to farmland was surprisingly easy. With one exception, the Egyptian farmers were very happy to let us on their land, often helping us to find frogs, snakes and toads. During our time in the delta, we made the first recorded sighting of a red admiral butterfly Vanessa atalanta in Egypt for 20 years. We were suprised by the diversity of insects generally. We were pleased to see a couple of dice snakes Natrix tessellata and many Montpellier's snakes Malpolon monspessulanus. We also saw many lizards, frogs and toads.
From the delta, we headed south past Suez and Ismailia, and down the Red Sea coast. During this part of the expedition, we saw a gradual change from the almost-entirely agricultural land of the delta to the desert. We continued to see many butterflies, dragonflies and lizards. We also got our first sightings of the African beauty snake Psammophis sibilans, appropriately named, and the sandfish Scincus scincus, with its wedge-shaped head.
For the final part of the expedition, we crossed through the centre of the Eastern desert to return to the Nile valley. We were joined by a local Bedouin guide Moter, whose impeccable navigational skills and experience of the desert helped us through the most challenging part of the trip. The eastern desert is like the Sinai in many repsects, but is much drier and more barren owing to many years of drought. The area is also very scarcely populated; we often went for days without seeing another person. This part of the expedition presented the greatest logistical challenges. Travel was mostly off-road and over very rough terrain. We got the van stuck in sand on several occasions. Water was almost impossible to find and we had to carry two weeks supply for drinking with us. The shortage of water meant that we had to go nearly two weeks without a proper wash.
Despite there being little vegetation, we saw many interesing species. The butterfly fauna was less diverse, although the ubiquitous long-tailed blues Lampides boeticus were present at many sites, as was the Bath white Pontia daplidice. We saw many lizards, including the Sinai agama Pseudotrpaelus sinaitus. There was evidence of vipers Cerastes sp. at most sites. The highlight of the reptile species was probably the pygmy gecko Tropiocolotes sp., which measured scarcely 3 cm in length. We were also very pleased to see abundant evidence of gazelles. At one point, we missed them by a matter of hours.
Overall, the trip was a resounding success. We recorded over 60 species, made records of species from new areas and made the first official record of a red admiral butterfly in Egypt for 20 years. The team worked very well together and we all had a great time.